Filip Novotny Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the American game studio Double Fine Productions and their project on the Kickstarter service. Fans are hoping that they will get a game as great as Psychonauts in 2005.
I'm sure everyone has wondered what it would be like to be able to read other people's minds or see the world from their perspective. In Psychonauts, just such a thing is possible, although a little differently than you might imagine. We find ourselves in the role of Razputin, a boy who, like several other children, is at a summer camp. There wouldn't be anything so strange about that, right? A mistake, because this is a camp for the training of abnormal psychic powers. Parents of such gifted children send their children here to acquire special abilities such as telekinesis, teleportation and the like. However, Razputin is unique in that he came to Whispering Rock on his own initiative to become the best psychonaut on earth. Therefore, he gathers advice from the most experienced teachers, who demonstrate their abilities to him by letting him directly into his mind through a miniature magical door. Razputin thus finds himself in worlds that are strictly geometric, disco-colored or downright insanely surreal. In short, each of the levels is a material imprint of one or another personality, with a representation of all their mental processes, fears and joys.
As Raz gradually uncovers the secrets of his teachers, he learns new and new psychic abilities. Soon he can concentrate his psychic power and fire it at enemies, he also learns to levitate, become invisible, manipulate objects with telekinesis. If the description so far sounds crazy, wait until you hear the main plot. Whispering Rock will soon transform from a peaceful summer camp into a harsh war zone. Once, together with his teachers, he discovers that the mad Professor Loboto is sucking the precious brains out of all the students and storing them in jars in his laboratory. So Razputin has no choice but to embark on a harrowing journey to the abandoned psychiatric hospital where Professor Loboto has his hideout. However, several extraordinary opponents will stand in his way. As can be expected given the nature of the final location, these are characters who are not quite right in the head. We randomly come across a paranoid security guard dreaming up the most absurd conspiracy theories, a schizophrenic in the character of Napoleon Bonaparte, or a former opera singer who mentally could not bear her career downfall.
Understandably, Razputin will want to deal with these characters using his psychic powers, so he goes right into their twisted minds. At the same time, you will have great joy in discovering them, because each character has their own unique story and carries some major life problem that you can help solve. You will therefore solve various logical puzzles, collect lost thoughts (which you will use to upgrade your abilities instead of the obligatory gold coins), look for keys to safes where people hide their most important life experiences. In addition, you will also use your psychic abilities in battle, because few people would just let an unknown person (Raze) wander through their consciousness. So you will fight with a defense system in the form of "censors", who in the worst case can even throw you out of the mind of their protégé. In addition, there is usually a boss waiting for you at the end of the level with a unique set of abilities and weaknesses. In this respect, you will definitely not be bored.
What's worse is the gradually declining level design. Each of the worlds has a unique visual style, but in the final stage, the middle ones are too complicated and comprehensive. It may sound strange, but Psychonauts was much more suited to the linearity and clarity that prevailed in the first half of the game's time. In addition, all the humor disappears, with which half of the game was clearly riddled, especially in the form of comic scenes. Therefore, towards the end, it is quite likely that only curiosity and the story line will drive you forward. Occasional problems with the camera or controls are understandable due to the age of the game, although they must also be taken into account in the evaluation.
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Despite all that, Psychonauts is an extraordinary gaming effort that, unfortunately, was not as financially successful as it deserved due to its originality and innovation. He received recognition at least from his numerous fans, who also, through the Kickstarter service, enabled the developers to finance another game, which we could expect already in the middle of next year.
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For me this game is still like one of the best. Funny story. Awesome level design. Where is mario galaxy digging? If only they'd remake it on ios...